Unemployment rate in Bulgaria stood at 7.26% in February 2008, down by 0.12 percentage points compared to January and a decrease of 2.22 percentage points on February 2007.

The unemployment in February has declined in 25 regions, compared to January, while Sofia, Blagoevgrad and Bourgas regions registered an increase of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03 percentage points, respectively.

A total of 268,756 jobless were registered with job centers in February, down by 4,524 (1.7%) compared to the previous month. The number of unemployed has decreased by 82,419 compared to February 2007.

A total of 14,751 vacancies were announced by the job centers in February 2008. The new jobs announced on the primary labor market totaled 11,850. The bulk of the vacancies (9,184) are in the private sector. The figure represents an increase of 2,270 compared to the previous month.

A total of 65,051 people worked under employment programs and projects implemented by the National Employment Agency in February, an increase of 1,839 on January.

Some 1,643 unemployed were included in professional and motivation training programs in February, 546 more than January.